Changes of the Dead
by IKillZombiesForALiving
Summary: The group is in search of a permanent settlement, but the apocalypse is changing. "They're" changing. They must now fight against new types of zombies known as special infected. Crossover with "Left 4 Dead". Rating might raise to M later. Takashi/Saeko
1. Hard Rain

**AN: This is my first ever **_**Highschool of the Dead **_**fanfic. This is going to be a crossover between **_**Highschool of the Dead **_**and **_**Left 4 Dead **_**because I am overly obsessed with both of those. Both series are such wonderful creations! **

**They will be encountering both the special infected and campaigns! **

**Pairings: TakashixSaeko (my OTP... :3) **

**Changes of the Dead**

"Oh no..." Shizuka said as their vehicle came to a sudden stop. They had been traveling non-stop for hours, and by now, the car was out of fuel. Her brown eyes went to the fuel gauge on the dash board. "We're out of gas..."

"Why didn't you stop at the last gas station?" spoke an irritable voice from the person sitting next to her. Saya hadn't spoken much since they had left her mansion. She had been too depressed after being forced away from her parents as the Takagi manor was in flames and a hoarde rushed towards the burning building.

"I-I couldn't! There was so many of the out there a-and we had to get out of there." The nurse didn't look at the pink haired genius. "I'm sorry!"

From behind her, Takashi reached up and placed a comforting hand on the blond woman's shoulder. "Don't worry about it," he began. "At least it got us out of Tokonosu." The brown haired teen looked up ahead and pointed towards street sign. "That sign says there is a gas station to miles ahead. We'll go get some fuel." He turned and nodded at two of his teammate, Saeko, for them to come along with him.

Rei watched as the two piled out of the vehicle, trying not to show her distaste for Takashi and Saeko being together. Takashi could sense her jealously, however, he knew that with the recent loss of both her home and parents that Saya was in no position to fight. Also, Shizuka had no experience with shooting a gun, or weilding any type of weapon for that matter, and Alice was too young, so that meant for Rei and Kohta to stay behind incase any of "them" showed up. He doubted it would happen, but given the situation, they never knew when the infected beings would appear, and with the distance to the station, the more fighters, the better so that was the reason for him asking Saeko to come along.

"Be careful!" The nurse told them as they began to walk off. They didn't pay much mind to it.

Fortunately for the two of them, they had estimated that they had made it a quarter mile without encountering any of "them."

"I see a town up ahead," The violet hair swordswoman said.

Sure enough, there was the outline of a small town up the road. Takashi let out a sigh of relief. He was growing tired of walking.

The town had not been spared from the virus's deadly wave. It was filled with the bodies of those who had been killed, burnt down buildings, and crashed cars; just like the rest of the world. They had grown used to the gruesome sight by now, the massacred ghost town scene in front of them not bothering them at all.

Takashi sighed, catching the attention of his companion.

"Everything alright?" She asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.

He blushed lightly. "Uh, yeah. Everything's fine."

Saeko couldn't help but let out a low chuckle at Takashi's reaction. She was used to recieving such a reaction from him: the blushing and occassional turning away if she were to wear hardly any clothing around him and he would have to resist the urge to stare at her large chest.

Takashi shook his head and looked ahead of them. "There's the gas station." He smiled.

However, their relief was short lived as they walked closer to the station, for nailed to the store of rhe station was a large sign that read, "OUT OF GAS."

Takashi opened his mouth to curse, but was stopped by a low growling noise. Then the noise stopped, and neither of them noticed the dark hooded figure standing on top of an abandoned eighteen wheeler. It was when it let out its signature scream that they finally realized it was there. In a fluid movement, Saeko began to pull out her katana, but looked up in time to see a bullet pierce the creature's head. Thanks to their luck, the hooded creature landed on a near by car with a loud _thud _, and to make matter worse, the vehicle had a car alarm set, and it was set off as soon as the being made impact. The alarm was loud, and the quiet town quickly turned infested. They would have to fight.

Takashi took out the zombies as they approached, while Saeko stook to her usual close combat fighting.

The same feeling rose up inside the violet haired woman. The very feeling that she loved to feel whenever she would have to fight against the infected beings. Saeko loved killing them; she felt such a high amount of pleasure everytime she would bash the skulls of one of them. The bodies of the zombies lay before them in a matter if seconds.

All seemed calm until another car crash landed a mere ten feet away from where they were standing.

"What the hell...?" Saeko spoke as they turned in the direction the vehicle had came from.

This creature was massive. Much larger than any of the other zombies their team had encountered. It stopped and ripped part of the ground up, and then threw it at them.

The brown haired boy reached for his teammates hand, pulling her along with him as he begsn to run. "Behind here!" They hid behind the corner of the store. He knew when the zombie was close because of how much the ground shook under its large body. Takashi stood up from his crouching position, his gun ready, for he wanted to kill the creature as it approached them.

He took a brave step out of where they were and aimed. He pulled the trigger.

_'Click!'_

Nothing. He had run out of ammo when they had fought the hoarde just a few minutes before. "Shit!"

The beast swung on of its large arms at him. Takashi's body was thrown off the ground and slammed against a nearby house. The force of the blow left a huge hole in the wall and Takashi unconsciouss.

Saeko watched as it ran at him again, going to finish him off. She couldn't move. The feeling of fear was something she wasn't used to. For the first time in a long time, she, Saeko Busujima was scared. How could she be? It was just another zombie.

_'Just another one of them,' _she thought.

The swordswoman stood up, once again pulling her katana out of its seathe. Her signature smirk appeared back on her face, the same one that would appear at the sight of any of "them".

From that moment on, everything seemed to move in slow motion. She ran towards the huge infected, jumping onto the tail gate of a truck parked in the house's driveway then onto the roof of said truck. Just as it was about to land the killing blow on her companion, that was when she made her own killing blow. She leaped off of the truck, the katana's blade pointing down as she came down on the massive zombie. Her sword's blade pierced right through it's skull, killing it in an instant. She stood proudly over her new kill.

Saeko was drawn back to reality when Takashi moaned in pain. She pulled the katana from the zombie and put it back in its place. She sat on her knees next to her injured companion, finding him still unconscious. Slowly, she put one of his arms over his shoulder. Saeko took him to the back room in the store and set him down on the ground. She would go back for his weapon later.

**- Back at the car -**

"What is that?" Kohta had his trusty gun pointed at a boney, pale creature. He didn't intend on shooting it, for now he was just using the scope on the gun to get a better look at the mysterious weeper. "It sure as hell ain't human."

"Why is it crying?" Rei whispered as it continued to cry.

"How should I know?"

The pale figures moaning slowly grew louder as it walked towards them, not sensing it was walking towards humans .

"So it's not human..." Saya said. She was watching the same thing as Kohta and Rei through the passanger seat window. "So that means it's a zombie like pretty much everyone else in the world besides us." She continued to analyze it. "However, this thing is different from the other ones. It doesn't seem to notice that was are by it. It's too busy crying."

The sound eminating from the figure changed to a growling. Its position also began to change. It began to remove its hand from its face, showing its pale white skin and glowing red eyes. The growling grew louder.

Kohta quickly shut the sun roof of the vehicle as it let out a high pitched scream. It was about to attack them, but once it saw it had no way to get to them, it covered its face again and returned to crying, turning and walking in a new direction.

**- Back in the town -**

Saeko had barricaded the room she had sheltered Takashi and herself - but not after she had gathered a few useful items. She was about to doze off when she saw Takashi stur and finally began to regan consciousness. He moaned in pain again. Saeko moved towards him.

"Don't move too much," she warned him. She put a hand against his rib cage lightly. "With the hit you took I wouldn't be surprised if you had a few broken bones _and _a cocussion."

Takashi sighed. "That thing... what happened to it?"

She looked down at him. "I took care of it. Don't worry." She decided to change the subject from the massive zombie to something else. "I saw you had a few cuts, so I went ahead an wrapped them up for you." She showed him an ace bandage wrapped around his shin.

He sat up. "Where did you get this stuff?"

"I found a few things lying around town. It's odd to find first aid kits lying around, but this one was from an ambulance..." She smiled lightly. "After that "thing" was killed there weren't anymore showing up, so I walked around town. I found another gas station a few minutes up the street." Saeko showed him the two containers of gasoline that she had gathered.

When she reached over to pull the containers towards them, Takashi took noticed of a bandage wrapped around her own wrist and grabbed it.

"What's this? Did you get bitten?" He quickly grew worried for her.

Saeko's expression didn't change. "Relax. When I got to the gas station, I tripped and fell on some broken glass. I'm alright."

He stared at the bandage a while, finding it strange how this was the only injured part of her. Her would have expected a dew more cuts on her if she had fallen onto glass. After what seemed like hours, he released her. "Let's get back to the others." He said as he reached for his gun.

"Are you sure? You're hurt, Takashi."

"I'll manage." He slowly stood up. "We need to get back before the others run into these things."

**AN: I should have finished this an hour ago, like after the Tank showed up, but no. I wanted to finish this. And yay! They got some achievements! :3**


	2. Hard Rain Pt 2

**AN: Word hates me! I had about 1/6 of the chapter written last night and I went back before bed to add more and it's not there. I saved it and everything! D: I'm so mad at it.**

**Well, I got this video game today called "Vampire Rain" today. Anyone know of it? It is gonna take me a while to learn how to play it... **

_**Italic Text - Thoughts**_

**Chapter Two**

"What happened to him?" Rei yelled once she saw the condition that Takashi was in. Though she had ended her relationship with him a long time ago, she was still concerned for his well being. Seeing him like like he was hurt her.

"I'm fine, Rei," Takashi tried to tell her, however he was having a bit of trouble due to his injuries and was having to be helped by Saeko. He felt guilty for her having to gather everything alone while he was unconscious; that was not very reassuring to the brunette.

"How can you be okay?" She began to question him. "Look at the bruises you have, and all the bandages!"

"I just got my ass handed to me by this thing."

Rei's maroon eyes widened in fear. "You mean a zombie? Did you get bitten? Please tell me you didn't get bitten,Takashi."

"Well..." He paused. "I didn't get bitten at least."

He then begam to explain to the rest of the group about the two new infected that he and Saeko had encountered while they were in the two once they were back on their way. Saya had moved from her previous spot in the passenger's seat to the back with the other teenagers to discuss these new creatures.

The first one that they had encountered would have been mistaken for a normal zombie at first glance. However, the more common ones did not let out a loud scream as it pounced towards its victims, followed by it using its razor sharp claws to rip at who it had pinned underneath it, leaving nothing but a bloody, mangled mess behind.

The second had been nothing like they had encountered before. This one had poccessed hysterical strength, enough for it to be able to lift up vehicles and pieces of the ground. They had known it was coming for it by its roar and how the ground shook violently underneath it much like an earthquake. Thought it had been killed easily with Saeko using her katana and thrusting it into its head, they all knew it would take a lot longer to bring that thing down.

"It was huge... like some giant tank," Takashi finished.

"Then why don't we call it that?" Alice, the youngest member of the group, who was probably no older than nine, asked. "We should. That way we can know which is which if we see some more of them." She smiled at her idea.

"Then that is what we will call it. A Tank," Saya began. "As for the other one, we'll call it a Hunter because of how it was able to sneak up on you two."

The others agreed.

"What about the one we saw?" The blond nurse asked from the driver's seat. She had slowed down her driving due to the rain that had begun outside. "We hadn't seen one like it before. It must be a new one."

"You guys saw one, too?" Saeko looked back at the others.

"Yeah..." Rei began. "It was really pale and boney, and it had really long coaws that must have been about a foot long. And all it did was cry. Well it did try to attack us... but it couldn't get in the car so it walked away crying."

"Uh... guys..." Shizuka began. "The rain is getting harder..." In fact, it was. The heavy rain was making it hard for the blond woman to see where she was going. The streets were beginning to flood, which made the car move slower. Out side, Shizuka was just barely about to make out a small house. "Cam we stop here until the rain stops?"

Not wanting to get wet making their way to the house that Shizuka had recommended, the group of seven waited out the raging storm in their vehicle. Alice had fallen asleep first, followed by Kohta, then Saya, then Shizuka, Rei and Saeko. Takashi had trouble getting to sleep because he felt sore and stiff because of the injuries he had gotten earlier thay day when he had been thrown through a wall by what they now called a Tank. Eventually, he gave up and stared out the window at the rain, which refused to let down.

"Can't sleep?"

"I thought you were asleep..." He answered sleepily.

Saeko shrugged, sitting herself upright. "I have been dozing on and off..." She sighed. "I am still a bit in shock of what we saw today."

"I know... Me, too."He turned his gaze over to her.

Saeko looked down, her expression turning into one of sadness. "I'll be honest with you... I was scared earlier... Terrified perhaps..."

"I don't blame you... I was, too. Especially when I found out my gun was put of bullets. I thought that thing was going to kill me." Takashi paused, watching the violet haired girl for a moment before he continued. "Thank you for saving me."

Takashi reached over and placed his hand over hers. Saeko looked at the hands for a moment before she gently squeezed his.

"I wasn't going to just watch and let you die..." _Though I would have let it kill me right after... _"I am sorry I didn't help you sooner... If I did you probably would have gotten hurt like this..." _I would have preferred it if it had attacked me instead._

"Don't blame yourself...!" He wanted to yell that at her, but he had to keep his voice down so that he wouldn't wake up the others. "It wasn't your fault, Saeko." When hecrealized that she wasn't looking at him, smhe grabbed her face in his hands and force her to look him in the eyes. "Do you understand? I don't want you to blame yourself."

She closed her eyes, bringing her hands up to his to remove them, then she reopened her eyes. "I know that... It's just that... I..." The words she wanted to say were almost impossible to say. She couldn't bring herself to it, so she replaced them. "I really don't care about anyone else's survival but yours..." She averted his gaze again.

He turned away as well, his back up against the seat of the car. "I'll survive as long as everyone else does."

They sat there in silence. About a half hour later, they were both asleep with Saeko's head on Takashi's shoulder and his head on her's. Somehow, they had entwined their fingers so that they were holding hands in their sleep.

Morning came soon after, Shizuka was the first awake and began to drive on as the others continued to sleep. The rain had stopped and the bright sun outside was beginning to evaporate the flood water on the roads. Rei awoke second, and she was not too thrilled about how she found Takashi and Saeko asleep together and a jealous feeling that she was all too familiar with arose. She pouted before shs turned her head away from them to watch the scenery outside them pass by.

"Are we safe yet?" Saya asked with a yawn as she awoke.

The nurse kept her eyes on the road to avoid the abandoned vehicles and debris that covered the road. "Yes and no..." She sighed. "They" haven't been around yet today... so on that part we are safe." Shizuka smiled.

She had jinxed the group, for as soon as she finished her sentence the car was hit by an unknown force. The impact slid the car off of the road and into the ditch. The windows were now shattered and those who had still been asleep were roughly awakened.

"What was that?" Takashi asked almost immeadiately after he was woken up. "Is it one of those things again?" He looked around the wreck for his gun.

Saya looked towards where the hit had been from, which was the driver's side. Thankfully, it wasn't a Tank, but it was pretty close. "What is that thing? Does it suffer from chronic masturbation or something?"

They had been right about the fact that there could be more specially infected zombies. This was the fourth one for them to encounter. One of its arms was huge, much similar to the Tank, however its other arm was very skinny and completely useless.

"We neee to move before that thing charges at us again," Saeko said.

She climbed out of what was formerly the sun roof, and turned back to assist the rest while they got out the same way, but as she did so, she was grabbed by something wrapping around her waist. It dragged her away from the rest of the group, and she hadn't had time to grab her trusty katana, so Saeko was weaponless. She looked back once the dragging ended, seeing the fifth edition to the special infected. This one had a long tongue, which she quickly figure was what had grabbed her. It was tall and skinny with a strange green smoke eminating from its body. She felt the zombie wrap its tongue around her neck, beginning to shut off her airways and choking her.

As Takashi yelled for her, Kohta grabbed his gun. He loomed through the scope on it and smirked. "I got him." He pulled the trigger, shooting the zombie in the head and killing it instantly, leaving a large, thick cloud of black smoke.

Saeko's first intention was to keep lying on the ground, and hopefully any more infected would think she was dead. However, that was against her. She really wanted to get to the now destroyed vehicle to grab her beloved melee weapon and kill them all. Once she finish her long coughing fit and the smoke cleared, she freed herself from the tongue and ran back.

"Are you okay?" Takashi asked her as soon she got back to the rest of the group.

She nodded, though she did go through another short coughing fit before she was able to answer him. "Yeah.. I'm fine." She took her katana from the car.

The group stared at what they had been using since the escape from Tokonosu. It hadn't been that long, but it had gotten them this far, even if they were stuck on an island with it for a night or two. They knew that, for now, they would have to travel by foot. However, they would have to fight the horde that was running towards them.

Takashi looked towards where the car had been going before the Charger had knocked it useless. Off in the distance he could see a patch of forest with a thin trail going through. "Let's go down that trail."

"Are you stupid?" Saya began to scold him. "You'll get us lost in there!"

He begam to shoot at Them as they get closer. "Not if we follow the path. It has to lead us some where. Maybe it'll lead us to something useful."

**AN: I actually do not feel right ending this chapter here. But, I also do not have any more to add at the same time. So, I'm stopping here anyway. I'll begin chapter three tomorrow! **


	3. Blood Harvest

**AN: I can't sleep... so I am just going to go ahead and begin this chapter now. **

**I tried to get this to go in the cross over section, but for some reason I can't get it to work. Weird.**

**Chapter Three**

"This way!" Takashi led the group to the path that he had seen earlier. Luckily, they had killed off enough of the infected to give themselves a head start. However, the number of zombies was increasing rapidly. They would have to run as far as they could before they caught up with them.

As the got to the opening of the path, Saeko stopped dead in her tracks. Why was she running? This wasn't like her. She was the one to dive right into a fight against Them. The violet haired woman turned towards the approaching horde and pulled out her katana. "Go ahead. I'll hold them off."

Ignoring their protests, she ran towards the horde, her weapon ready. She would leave decapitated bodies behind her as she went farther into Them. Saeko's smirk grew into a smile that easily read insanity as the blade of her katana sliced through the bodies of several zombies, even as their blood was splattered all over her body. She imaged the infected beings as what they formerlly were... human beings. Her imaging them as humans screaming in agony and begging for mercy only drove her farther into her bloody lust madness. She did not even noticed when she had herself surrounded.

What finally brought her back to reality was the overwhelming amount of pain that spread throughout her upper arm. Saeko managed not to scream. When she looked at her arm to survry the damage, she saw her her white school uniform shirt being stained the color red.

_'Beep... beep... beep!'_

_'Explosion!'_

A grenade been thrown. Fortunately for her, the beeping noise from it had attracted the attention of Them and they left her alone to have their bodies blown up.

That was when Saeko began to feel dizzy and weak. She would have collapsed onto the ground if Takashi hadn't gotten their at the perfect time to catch her.

"Saeko! What ha-!" He was cut short when he felt a warm liquid through his shirt. Takashi looked down at her arm and his eyes widened at her wound. He had seen one like this when the infection had first began. "You... you got... one of them bit you.."

Saeko let out a small chuckle. "It's not the first time it's happened..."

She lifted her wrist that had the bandage on it. The one that she had told him she had accidently cut on broken glass while they were in the town. Saeko began to remove the bandage from it. To everyone's surprise, the bandage had been covering another bite wound.

Takashi stared at it. After what seemed like an eternity he finally spoke. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You were injured... you had your own injuries... to worry about..." That was when she fell unconscious in his arms.

Shizuka ran over with a first aid kit in hand. The blond knew that there was nothing really that any of them would be able to do, but still, Shizuka wrapped up Saeko's new injury. Takashi then picked Saeko up and began to carry her on his back while Shizuka carried Saeko's katana.

"Why are you carrying her?" Saya asked, her normal genius like tone coming out. "She's been bitten! She's gonna become one of them! Or worse, one of these new ones that we have been seeing since we got out of Tokonosu!"

Takashi didn't answer for a while. He was deep in thought. "I've seen someone turn into one of them before..." He gave Rei an apologetic gaze as he brought up Hisashi. "It takes at most twenty minutes to turn into one of them..." He continued to think aloud.

"What are you saying?" Saya asked.

Takashi stopped and looked at the pink haired genius. "I am just thinking... if she was first bitten when she and I were in the town then she would have became one of Them a long time ago... Immunity isn't an impossibility."

"Idiot!" Saya began. "This infection is different for everyone. Whether you like it or not she is infected. How do you even know if she is still alive?"

"I can feel her breathing," Takashi answered matter of factly as he continued to walk.

"Fine, but if she starts going crazy and attacks us, I won't hesitate to shoot her." Saya paused and placed her hands on her hips. "And this doesn't explain why she passed out."

"I have a theory," Shizuka's voice broke in. "I think she was bitten near the brachial artery. It's on the inner part of the upper arm... a few more inches and she could have died from blood lost... she'll be fine... with the loss of blood at least..." Shizuka was not so sure on Takashi's theory of immunity, but she did want to make sure.

"What's that?" Alice pointed ahead. She could see a pretty good distance from where she was being carried on top of Kohta's shoulders.

A little more walking, they came to their next temporary break. To their luck, they had been able to come across an abandoned farm house. By the damaged they saw to parts of the house, and the corpse lying near it, it was obvious that this place had not been at the mercy of the infection. However, they needed a break and went inside.

_"To anyone out there, we are a small militry base a few miles north."_

They were not expecting to find a radio in the kitchen, let alone were they expecting to have any form of contact to anyone. At the sound of the man's voice, Rei's face lit up in hope and she ran to answer it.

"Dad! Can you hear me?" Rei waited for the reply.

_"Rei? Is that really you? You're alive!" _

The brunette's eyes began to tear up. She had not been able to contact her father since the first day of the infection, which was over two weeks ago. "I thought you were dead, too.. but yes.. it's me."

Everyone smiled as Rei was somewhat reunited with her father. Takashi was able to set Saeko down on the larger couch in the living room. However, it was the movement that finally woke her. With her last clear memory before she passed out being her fighting the large horde, she woke up thinking she was still being attacked and her hand left a bright red mark on Takashi's face.

"What the hell?" He yelled.

"Takashi?" Saeko shook her head and stared at him for a moment. She sat up. "Oh my God, I'm sorry. I thought I was still fighting Them."

Takashi stood up from where he had been knocked down the highly unexpected slap. At that moment, Shizuka came in after hearing the noise.

"Is everything okay?" She noticed Saeko was now awake. "Oh good. You're up." She smiled.

"Yeah..." Saeko said unemotionally.

"How are you feeling?" The nurse walked over to her. Shizuka wanted to make sure the teenager did not have amy symptoms of the infection to be on the safe side.

"Fine, just a bit weak."

"You can still back a punch.." Takashi joked. He rubbed the still stinging skin of his cheek.

"You're not feeling sick or anything?" Shizuka asked. Shizuka had her own first encounter with the infection as the rest of them had. A student had brought a friend of his into hee office after his friend had been bitten by one of the zombies. His friend died soon after. However, he awoke as one of the infected creatures and bit the student. Infact, if it weren't for Saeko's timing, Shizuka would probably be one of Them herself.

Saeko shook her head. "I don't feel dizzy. I don't feel nauseous or anything. It's weird. Shouldn't I be dying?"

"Well.. uh..." Shizuka was not sure how to answer that. There was what they were used to: once you are bitten, you die and come back as a zombies, and then there was the chance of immunity. "We're not so sure about that anymore..." She looked at the recently revealed bite mark on Saeko's wrist. "You were bitten in the town... right?"

Saeko looked down at it herself. "Yeah."

She felt bad about lying about it, but since it hadn't made her feel sick like she had expected she didn't think much of it at the time and focused on collecting what she and Takashi had been in the town to get in the first place.

Their conversation paused while the conversation with Rei and her father continued on. They were overwhelmed with the relief of each other having survived the infection for this long. Not wanting to attract any unwanted attention from the infected, Rei had to keep her voice down.

_"I'll send a truck to pick you all up. They'll bring you here." _Rei's father told her.

She nodded, though she knew he couldn't see her. "Alright."

_"They will be there in about ten minutes. Stock up while you can because They're gonna swarm when we come in. Prepare yourselves."_

Before the family members finished, the team already began getting ready. Saeko told Shizuka that she was okay to fight when the horde would come in, so Shizuka gave Saeko her weapon. Kohta found sound ammonition and loaded his gun while Takashi did the same. They had a few minutes left, and they spent it searching the house for any more supplies. Shizuka went through the medicine cabinet in the house and gathered medical supplies. With the luck they were having lately, she knew that these things would be needed.

"Everyone ready?" Shizuka asked everyone once she had filled her first aid kit.

Those of the group who did the fighting looked at her and nodded. As if on que, the sound of a truck could be heard from a distance. Along with it, came the sound of the approaching infected.

**AN: And another chapter complete. :3**


End file.
